The Hacks

Open Source madness continues! With all of the changes taking place within a few of the worlds largest open source offerings, many are starting to ask lots of questions.  A bunch of those questions are about long term maintainership and how their own infrastructure will be affected. On the heels of two huge announcements from Red Hat and HashiCorp, there are now two large, promised communities that are asking "what are we going to do"?  Tom says these questions have already led to discussions about "consortium forking".

Back in the day, forking open source software was often times viewed as a threat, leveraged by community members to get what they want from an open source software provider. According to Tom, forking open source software can be a good thing--sometimes.  This primarily if you're forking the software to accomplish specific internal needs of your infrastructure. However, when a decision is made to fork a large, consortium based, open source entity, things get much more difficult--thanks to long term maintainership--and ultimately ends with the wholesale splintering of a community. Why is it assumed that this will happen, and is there a way to prevent it?  Listen to this episode to find out!

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There's been a ton of craziness in the open source space lately. In the last episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga were talking about the fallout from Red Hat and HashiCorp making changes to their source code access, and licensing. During that episode, Chunga asked the question, "How did we get into this mess in the first place?!" Well, in this episode of The Hacks, Tom has the answer in the form an open source history lesson!

Back in 2008, something insane happened that kicked off a fundamental shift in the way open source software was funded, viewed and ultimately developed. What is it?  What happened? Here's a hint--It was the first time an open source company was acquired for a ridiculously large amount of money.  This acquisition changed the very fabric of open source!  Listen NOW to learn how! 

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In this episode of The Hacks, Chunga wants to talk with Tom about what he calls "the open source elephant in the room".  Recently, there's been a dramatic shift in the way open source software is licensed, funded and consumed.

A few weeks ago, Red Hat announced a decision to start restricting their source code. Now, just last week, HashiCorp is going to change their licensing model to the business source license!  When Tom heard this news, the only thing he said was "I told you so". 

Why are these two companies, and so many others, choosing to change their licensing and source code access?  Will the same thing happen to Salt?  Tom has a very clear explination about why this is happening, and why it's happening right now. He says it all comes down to a couple of simple open source catagorizations and corporate expectations.  Listen NOW to find out what they are!

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There's a lot going on in the world right now. Tom and Chunga almost have too much to talk about, and they don't know where to start! Tom says they should start with what he thinks is the biggest, most important, potentially life changing thing that's happening right now. It's behing called LK-99. 

What's LK-99 you ask? Well, Tom says it may very well be the biggest breakthrough in modern science since the transistor, maybe even bigger than that--IF it's real. A few weeks ago, scientists in South Korea claimed to have discovered the technology to create a super conductor that can operate at room tempature and generates almost no resistance or heat! Again, if this thing is legit, it will virtually everything about the way modern society lives and operates.  Listen to this episode of The Hacks to learn all about LK-99 and all of the amazing claims that are being made. Do Tom and Chunga think it's for real?  What about you?  Let us know!

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When Chunga was a kid, he was the biggest computer geek he knew. Tom (obviously) was exactly the same way. They used to love the days when new computers would hit the market so they could get one, and mod the crap out of it! 

In todays world, that level of excitement seems to faded into history.  Sure, people get excited about new tech, but not like Chunga and Tom did back in the day.  Now, when people buy the newest and coolest computer, they tend to use it "as is" until it slows down to the point of being an annoyance. When that happens, they throw it away and get a new one.

Chunga says it's sad to see that computers have truly become utilitarian, making them--in a word--boring. Tom agrees but says thats not entirely true. He knows of a few start up computer makers that are designing computers in a completely different way, and these scrappy, disruptive new innovators are blowing his mind!  What are they doing that has Tom so impressed?  Listen now to find out!!

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For the record, Tom and Chunga are not fans of two part episodes.  Unfortunately this Hollywood strike issue is so big, and impacts the tech industry in a large enough way that it requires two episodes just to cover the main concerns!

In part two, Tom and Chunga are talking about Hollywood's extreme worry over A.I. and Chat GPT. On one side, you have the movie exec's that love it, because it's fast and really cheap. On the other side, you have the actors and writers who HATE it. They're afraid its going to cost them jobs. Because of this, A.I. and Chat GPT are two of the core issues of the strike. 

Are writers and actors right to be fearful? Tom says "well--kind of". There are many areas where A.I. is going to become common place in film making and it could end up costing people their jobs.  Thats assuming Hollywood will use A.I. the right way, which they won't.  

So, is Hollywoods fear of A.I. going to create a long lasting, negative impact in the tech industry?  Listen to this episode of The Hacks to find out!

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Tom and Chunga spent last week hanging out in Utah, with the entire Salt Project Core Team! They had a fantastic week and both of them are very excited all the amazing things that are coming soon for Salt Project!

While they were in Utah, discussing all things Salt, there were some big events unfolding in Hollywood. In short, everyone has gone on strike!  Some of you may think, so what!  Whats the big deal? I work in tech, why does that have anything to do with me? In truth, Hollywoods problems are also a huge issue for everyone in tech as well! The tech industry is actually one of the main reasons everyone is one strike. 

If the actor and writer strikes continue for a prolonged period of time, could tech jobs and company stability be negatively impacted? Tom says ABSOLUTELY, especially when talking about the video game industry and media/streaming companies.  Listen to this episode of The Hacks to find out how, and when, the strike will start to affect the world and industry of tech!

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Tom and Chunga want to give Derek Ardolf a huge shout out!  Recently, Derek requested that The Hacks do an episode focused on "Shadow IT". 

Tom loved this idea because shadow IT runs the world! Simply put, the tech industry wouldn't be able to function without it, and that's NOT a good thing.  If you're not familiar with the term, shadow IT is a piece of software that used or deployed with in a company's infrastructure without having vetting, approval, or tracking. Tech professionals frequently deploy shadow IT because they need a specific tool that helps them meet a deadline and/or accomplish a team goal quickly.  They choose this action primarily because the corporate vetting and approval process for new software addition can take months.

Tom says 90% of all shadow IT is open source and--like it or not--is a key component to accomplishing tasks in a corporate environment.  At the same time its a massive problem and a critical risk to any corporate infrastructure. So... how does one find a solution to this issue?  Listen NOW to find out!

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Tom and Chunga have breaking news! 

Late last week, open source giant Red Hat announced that they have decided to restrict its source code. To say it's a move that has raised eyebrows around the world, would be an understatement.

Before he invented Salt, Tom was a Red Hat wizard, who would fly around the country, teaching people how to use Red Hat for Linux. He says this is something that Red Hat has been wanting to do for a very long time. So, why did they do it?  

Tom says there's a variety of reasons. In the short term, all of them will benefit Red Hat, even though thousands and thousands of companies and community members are going to feel like the rug has been pulled out from under them. When all of this shakes out, how angry are Red Hat open source users going to be? Has Red Hat just opened the door to new breed of competitors as a result of this decision?  Listen to this episode to find out!!

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Chunga is doing this episode of The Hacks for one reason and one reason only. It's purely so Tom can take a victory lap!

Recently, Tom sent Chunga a colorful infographic showcasing the worlds largest chip manufacturers and their market cap.  As Tom predicted on The Hacks a few years ago, AMD has become a larger and more powerful chip maker than Intel. As a long time fan-boy and advocate of AMD, Tom is very excited! In this episode of The Hacks, Tom doesn't just his victory lap, he and Chunga also talk about all of the chip makers listed in this infographic like Nvidia, Broadcom, Intel and others to find out each has become so successful and valuable. Listen now!

Here's Tom's "colorful infographic"